THE CANADA GROUSE. , 379 



scapulars, and outer surface of the wings are mottled like the back, but more irregu- 

 larly, and with a browner shade of gray, the feathers with a central white streak 

 expanding towards the tip (on the wing these streaks seen only on some of the 

 greater coverts); there is no white above, except as described; the under parts 

 are mostly uniform black, the feathers of the sides of the belly and breast broadly 

 tipped with white, which sometimes forms a pectoral band; there is a white bar 

 across the feathers, at the base of the upper mandible, usually interrupted above ; 

 a white spot on the lower eyelid, and a white line beginning on the cheeks, and 

 running into a series of white spots in the feathers of the throat; the lower feathers 

 of this are banded terminally with whitish ; the feathers at the base of the bill, 

 and the head, below the eyes and beneath, are pure-black; the quills are dark- 

 brown, without any spots or bands, the outer edges only mottled with grayish ; the 

 tail feathers are similar, but darker, and the tail is tipped with a band of orange- 

 chestnut, nearly half an inch wide, obscured on the central feathers, the under 

 tail coverts are black, broadly barred and tipped with white ; the feathers of the legs 

 mottled-brown and whitish ; dirty-white behind the tarsi ; the bill is black. 



The female is smaller but somewhat similar, the black bars above broader, the 

 inner gray bars of each feather, including the tail, replaced by broader ones of 

 brownish-orange ; the under parts have the feathers black, barred with the brownish- 

 orange, which, on the tips of the belly feathers, is pure-white ; the clear continuous 

 black of the head and breast are wanting; the scapulars, greater coverts, and sides, 

 are streaked as in the male. 



Length, sixteen and twenty one-hundredths inches ; wing, six and seventy one- 

 hundredths; tail, five and forty-four hundredths inches. 



IT is only in the most retired and unsettled localities in 

 northern New England that this very beautiful grouse is 

 found. There, in the spruce and pine woods and swamps, 

 it is not uncommon as a resident through the year. I have 

 shot specimens in the White Mountains, between what is 

 called Waterville, a hamlet in Thornton, N.H., and Bethle- 

 hem, in the same State ; but they are more commonly found 

 in the localities above mentioned. In its native haunts, it 

 is very unsuspicious, permitting a person to walk within a 

 few feet of it without stirring ; and, when it does take flight, 

 it goes but a few rods, when it alights on a tree, and turns 

 to watch the intruder. 



It is a very graceful bird on the ground, moving with a 

 stately step over the long elastic moss so abundant in the 

 woods of Maine. 



It feeds upon the buds of the evergreens, and their seeds 

 and foliage. This food imparts to the flesh of the bird a 

 disagreeable resinous flavor, particularly in fall and winter, 



